The talk amongst most US soccer supporters recently has been the jaw-dropping play of Freddy Adu at the Under-20 World Cup in Canada. The young phenom scored three goals during the group stage, and has been nearly unstoppable.

His array of tricks has certainly been impressive as has the range, accuracy and timing of his passing game. Hardly the work of an over-hyped, young talent that never panned out, Freddy is seemingly proving all doubters wrong with his performance for the young 'Nats.

But the question on everyone's mind is simple - where have these performances been in MLS?

Thus far, Freddy's league performances have left a lot to be desired. Since arriving on the scene at the age of 13, he was immediately tabbed as the next Pelé. DC United games sold out in a hurry as everyone rushed to the stadium to get a glimpse at the future of US soccer.

The fans, the media, the critics all demanded he start, demanded he score, and demanded he wow us with every touch of the ball. What we got was exactly what we should have expected in the first place - a very talented individual, but a very tactically naïve player.

He certainly showed us glimpses of his immense potential: a great run against the LA Galaxy as he cut inside, faked a shot, and then blasted the ball into the upper corner of the net. The next year: Freddy takes a ball off the bounce, flicks it over his head as well as an onrushing defender, and then burns Eddie Pope before sliding the ball into the net. Certainly, plays for the highlight reel.

In between, we've seen a player physically outmatched at times, floating in and out of games with a great pass here and losing the ball trying to dribble there. So what gives? How does he go from a player that occasionally performs one day to a player that utterly dominates matches the next? Well here's what I would like to propose. Freddy has always been Freddy.

I'm going to separate Adu's career thus far into two 'eras'- his first two years and his last two years. The fact is, in this first era, Freddy should never have been playing for the DC United first team. He should have been in Europe at the helm of a youth team.

At 13 years of age, he was merely an incredibly talented individual with very little tactical knowledge. This is no knock on Freddy, this would be the truth for any 13-year old.

Instead, Freddy was thrown onto the field out of position and over his head. Did that immense individual skill do some amazing things in his first two years? Yes, of course, but it was also crystal clear how often he seemed not to be on the field... how often he seemed to be jogging around not exactly sure where to be or what to do.

He should have been in a youth squad learning the game as a certain other young phenom was, Lionel Messi. Now, I do not place any blame on Peter Nowak for Freddy's supposed lack of development. Peter's job was to win plain and simple, and there was no way Freddy was going to take the job of Christian Gomez.

But pressured to put Adu on the field, Nowak placed him on the wing and drilled him into learning how to defend and to take less chances. It's what the coach had to do. He didn't have time for Freddy to learn by trial and error what works and what doesn't. He didn't have time for the kid to be a one-way player, staying up top where his skill would be most valuable. The coach needed to win.

Now in the midst of these first two years, Adu certainly picked up a few things. He grew tactically, learned to cope better physically, and his passing became exquisite at times. Jumping into the second 'era' of Freddy's career, specifically with this year with RSL, Freddy is the exact same player he has been at the U-20 WC.

In his third year with DC United, Freddy was still not ready to usurp Gomez as the squads attacking midfielder or Jaime Moreno as the withdrawn striker, so he was left on the wing.

Plain and simple, Adu is NOT a winger. He wasn't then, isn't now, and won't ever be an effective winger. He has neither the skill set nor the mentality to be one. He is without a doubt fast, but his real advantage is over the first 10 to 15 yards. He does not have the sustained speed that, say Ryan Giggs, does over 20 to 30 yards - exactly what you'd need as a winger.

Freddy is also the type that constantly needs the ball. If he isn't receiving the ball on a consistent basis, he will drift in and out of matches - which is what we have seen the last two years. As a winger, you generally aren't going to be seeing the ball in every attack. It's been the same with RSL, the exception being the one time Adu played as the AM: Freddy comes on as a sub against FC Dallas and delivers one of his best performances this season.

Now that Freddy is in his proper position and with the experience learned over the last 3+ years, what do we see? We see a player with dazzling skills, dominating teams, scoring goals, creating opportunities, basically being an absolute terror to opposing defenses. All of the sudden, Freddy seems fast, tactically suave and technically superior. Why is this you ask?

As a #10, his pace over 10 to 15 yards is devastating. Beating a player in the middle of the park causes the entire opposing defense to have to shift until Freddy can pick them apart on the dribble or with a probing pass. And probably most importantly, Freddy is seeing a lot of the ball. He is at the center of the majority of attacks. He's always involved, and this keeps Freddy always in tune and in the game.

If I'm Jason Kreis, I would take this as lesson learned. Freddy needs to be in the middle of the field, and there's no reason he shouldn't. There's no Christian Gomez in Utah.

Put him where he should play, and Freddy will be Freddy!

When not playing in defense for Finnish second flighters Rovaniemen Palloseura (try RoPS for short), Texas native Jon Burklo clears the area on his blog, which you can find at http://jjburklo.blogspot.com/